France’s national postal service, La Poste, was the victim of a large-scale cyberattack claimed by the pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16). The attack took place on Monday, December 22, in the midst of the pre-Christmas season, when the company processes millions of parcels.
According to the French prosecutor’s office, after the hackers claimed responsibility for the attack, the investigation was taken over by the DGSI internal intelligence service. La Poste’s central computer systems were disabled by a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack that overloaded the servers and made online services inaccessible, including parcel tracking, banking operations via La Banque Postale, and mobile applications.
The attack caused significant disruptions: customers were unable to track shipments online, and online payments and bank transfers were hampered. Physical delivery of letters and parcels continued, but with delays. La Poste, which delivered 2.6 billion parcels last year and employs more than 200,000 people, called the incident a “major network failure.” By the morning of December 24, the situation had begun to stabilize, although some services remained unstable.
The NoName057(16) group is known for previous attacks on targets in Europe, including the websites of the governments of Ukraine’s allies, as well as targets in Poland, Sweden, and Germany. Earlier in 2025, it was the subject of a major European police operation. French authorities and NATO allies link such incidents to Russia’s “hybrid warfare” aimed at undermining support for Ukraine.
This is not the first cyber incident in France in December: recently, the Ministry of the Interior was attacked, resulting in the theft of confidential data.
La Poste has promised a full return to normal operations in the near future and has filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office. The investigation is ongoing.